I Still See You
by Ghost501
Summary: The war is over and it's finally time for the demigod couple to gone on an long overdue date. But will the fact that Percy is now mortal be able to stop the chaos in his life? *Sequel to Time of Sacrifice
1. Chapter 1

I'm back! So, you all wanted the sequel? Here it is! But a few announcements:

1) I will be doing some Megaman stuff this week hopefully so Megaman fans look out for that.

2) Fans of my story _Blade of Sorrow_ will be happy about this. Yes, I've decided to make a sequel to that as well. In terms of long term stuff, I have three major projects that popped into my mind over the week but I'm still tweeking them before I even begin to start writing.

3) Final one, _I'll Never Leave You_, will be posted later this week. Now that that's done, on with the story!

* * *

Percy walked up to the hill and waited for Annabeth besides Thalia's tree. He couldn't believe that they had done it. Not to say that the improvised seven weren't capable—clearly they were—but it was a little touch and go there for a while. Especially when the earthquakes came.

Percy remembered the helplessness that he had felt when Gaea tried to swallow the earth. He recalled seeing his parents' faces as they huddled together knowing that the earth goddess was making her move. But he also remembered the resound love between the three of them. He had felt safe despite the earth goddess trying to claim the world in one massive strike. But when the earthquakes had stopped, they knew—he knew—that Annabeth, Piper, Leo, Jason, Frank, Hazel, and Nico had done it. Annabeth had filled him in after he was finally able to get an IM to her. Of course, although he was no longer a demigod, he still had his bad luck. He had woken his girlfriend up while she was trying to get some much deserved sleep. Needless to say, he barely got away unscathed from that conversation, despite being on the other side of the planet.

The two had talked for a while before Annabeth decided to go back to sleep and bid Percy a goodnight. Percy, of course being the "Seaweed Brain" that he was, realized that he had forgotten to ask Annabeth where she wanted to go on their date. So, he had to wake her up…again. And almost got himself killed from the other side of the world…again.

"Percy!" a voice shook him out of his rollercoaster memory. He turned to see Annabeth running at him. She had looked a lot better than she had those months ago when they had escaped Tarturus. She tackled the boy and both fell onto the ground laughing.

"Well, you're in a good mood." Percy noted.

"That's because I'm not being woken up at 12 and 3 in the morning by my annoying boyfriend." Annabeth smirked.

"Ouch, annoying. Me? Couldn't be? Did you have another boyfriend before me?" the comment earned him a playful smack on the arm. The couple picked themselves up from off the ground and started to walk off to the car.

"Paul actually let you borrow his car again?" she asked.

"Well, he doesn't have to worry about random pegasi dropping in and landing on the hood anymore."

Annabeth made a weak laugh before she turned to her boyfriend. In truth, she had missed him. Camp just wasn't the same after he had left. After he had become a mortal, just for her. Percy was constantly doing things for her no matter how big the sacrifice was. She was happy that monsters would no longer look for him, but he was a liability on quests now and someone had to let him in every time he wanted to come into camp and say hi.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Percy had learned how to tell when Annabeth was getting into a mood. After all, he had to in order to not accidentally tick her off because she could be quite deadly some days.

"It's just…I just miss you around camp. That's all." Percy let his gaze go to the ground. Even when he tried to do right, he still hurt her. Luckily, Percy was not the only one who could tell the others' mood changes, "Hey, don't be like that. I love the fact that you gave your powers up for me. If you hadn't then I wouldn't even have been around to even miss you. It's just a new factor that we have to deal with, alright?"

"Yeah," Percy stared in her grey eyes. He could still see some of the damages caused by Tarturus in her, but he saw her courage and bravery. She was still fighting back against the nightmares. But even that wasn't even the most important part. The critical bit was that she was still around for him to admire her eyes, "I just don't want to hurt you."

"Then just follow your heart. You're nothing but good Percy. Your heart will always lead you right." She gave Percy a quick kiss before opening the car door, "Now come on, we still need to go to that date of ours."

She saw him smirk as she got in and he closed the door behind her. What she didn't see was him make a quick prayer to his father.

_'Hey, I know I'm technically not your son since my demigod abilities were removed, but if you could somehow make this day go great that would be much appreciated.'_ Percy said mentally and got in on the driver's side and off they were.

* * *

Stone Fortress was a local burger and all American restaurant that Paul had actually shown him a little while back. He had been always planning to come here but due to the fact that he actually had to do summer school in order to catch up, he had never gotten the chance to.

As they took their seats, Annabeth was still talking about the "lazy slogan" as she called it. Stone Fortress's slogan was _Meals are so good that they need to be protected_. However, according to Annabeth, the saying really need a _the_ in the front of it.

"I'm just saying it's just lazy that they didn't put a _the_ in front of it. I mean how much energy does it take to simply write it in? Plus it makes the whole slogan sound better and actually just allows it to sound like intelligent people wrote it." She ranted.

Percy just smiled. A long time ago, he had realized that his girlfriend had what he called an "angry time meter". When she saw something that really bugged her, she would rant on about it until her meter dropped to zero. Unfortunately, that meter could deplete quickly or slowly. It just depended some days. Annabeth took a breath and proceeded to look at the menu. Percy, happy that she was no longer ranting, copied her and scanned for something to eat.

As their waitress came to the table, he noticed that she was staring intently at him. Percy suddenly felt uneasy as he looked into her eyes. The seemed opaque and fuzzy. Percy felt his insides turn cold as he averted his attention to Annabeth, who seemed as if she was getting more and more tense. The waitress took their orders and shot Percy one more glance before walking away.

"Did you see that?" Percy asked. However, Annabeth's mind had skipped town. After all, when a random waitress starts looking at your boyfriend a few times too many for your liking, you tend to start getting…protective.

It took Percy a full minute of saying her name before she finally dropped back down to Earth. Of course, the conversation after that soon turned into an interrogation.

"Do you know her?" she asked rather forcefully.

"No! Well, at least I'm not the only one creeped out by her?"

"I'm not creeped out. She just needs to learn to keep her eyes off of you."

"Do I detect a hint of jealousy?" Percy joked.

"Nope. Not jealousy. Just making a statement." The two laughed at their situation. It had been a long time since the two could actually be this normal in a public setting. The waitress came back with their drinks. This time however, she didn't bother looking at Percy. Although, it might have had something to do with a certain daughter of Athena staring incredibly hard at her. The waitress was almost certain that if the blonde had some way of using heat vision, she would be a puddle right now.

The waitress looked down at her mood ring and watched in amazement as it turned green. _'So, that is him.'_ She thought as she went to the kitchen to grab the other meals. As she stepped through the doors, she turned rung the bell and yelled out an order to the chef.

* * *

The restaurant began to get colder as everyone left. The lunch hour was over and people had to return back to work. Annabeth could see Percy shrinking in his seat. She felt bad for the boy. It wasn't his fault that the food was slow. He had made a number of attempts to apologize and to leave to a different place. But, she refused to leave. He had brought her here and this was where they were going to stay. She smirked to herself as she remembered her promise to never make it easy for him.

Finally, the food came out.

"We're so sorry for the delay. Our chef is just so slow on these entrees because they're her favorite. She just wanted to make sure that they were perfect." The waitress said as she passed out the food.

Annabeth took one bite of her burger and immediately spit it back out. Her mouth burned and she began to feel sick.

"Annabeth you okay?" Percy asked.

She would have talked if she could, but her world was beginning to go dark. She remembered trying to call out Percy's name, but she blacked out before her mouth even moved.

"ANNABETH!" he rushed over to her side as the waitress ran to the telephone to call 911.

"Annabeth, come on. Wake up. Come on." He turned back to the waitress who was bringing the phone over to him.

"What did you give her?!" He yelled angrily before taking the phone from her. As he put the phone onto his ear, he realized that the thing wasn't even on.

"You know, Perseus, you really should be worried about yourself right now. The girl is just asleep, but you? You're just a mortal. The others may not care sure do." an evil laugh rang in his ear.

Percy froze. The only people who called him Perseus were Annabeth, his parents, or Chiron when he was in trouble or…monsters. He turned his head to see no other but the second worst monster he had ever taken down. He quickly shot his eyes back to his girlfriend.

"What's wrong ex-son of Poseidon? Don't I look nice?" Medusa snarled.


	2. Chapter 2

Percy cradled Annabeth in his arms. Medusa was right as far as he could tell. Her breathing had slowed to that of a sleeping human. But that didn't mean that they weren't in danger. Percy wasn't a demigod anymore. He had no weapons. But, he still had his skill. His powers were gone, but his physical ability wasn't.

He felt the snake-haired woman's eyes on him. She wanted him to turn around. She wanted to turn the two of them to stone.

"I've waited a long time for this, Perseus. I would've greeted you while you were in Tarturus but that dreadful Arachne insisted that she be the one to torment you. She really is quite selfish. She's not the only woman in Tarturus that's been pissed off by that harlet's mother." Medusa spat.

Percy felt his anger rising. He didn't care who was talking. It could've been Zeus himself. _No one_ insulted Annabeth liked that and got away with it. He carefully picked his head up and scanned the room. The doors would've been more than likely looked by Medusa but there was a chance that he could get someone's attention from the window.

Before he could formulate a plan, he felt a hand grab his shirt and raise him up. Medusa then threw him and Annabeth against the wall. Percy had managed at the last second to turn his back towards the wall, shielding Annabeth. Percy felt his vision blur. This was not going well.

He felt Medusa grab him again and this time, she threw him into the kitchen. Catching him off guard, Percy had let go off Annabeth and as he flew, she was left alone on the floor.

'_Great. As glad as I am that it's me and not Annabeth getting this thrashing, I can't believe she cares more about revenge against me than revenge against Athena,'_ Percy thought.

Medusa walked over to the battered boy and gave him a solid right hook in the gut before he could recover from the throw. Percy groaned as he reeled from the attack. He was beginning to see spots. He slowly tried to get back up to his feet, but he just received a sharp kick. Medusa then grabbed a sack of flour from a pantry and dropped in on the boy. The white powder flew in the air and the weight crushed the boy's battered body.

'_You've faced worse. Come on Percy, for Annabeth!'_ He thought, trying to give himself the motivation to get back up.

"I bet you're wondering why I'm investing so much time in trying to kill you. Simple child, because you're my best bet in killing the Athens's spawn. She's totally enthralled into you. It's disgusting really, but helpful. The best way to torture her, is to kill you. So, it's truly nothing personal. Sure, I'm still a little mad at you for killing me all those years ago, but what are going to do. Revenge is revenge right?"

She twirled a butcher's knife dangerously in her hands. "You know, I could just freeze you as a statue. Much less bloody."

Percy stared at her venomously. He wouldn't let her hurt Annabeth. He wouldn't see her like that again.

_"Percy, they…they wanted me to kill you. They tried to make me turn against. I…I couldn't. They told me they would kill you. Then Gaea showed me a vision. I…I don't know what happened to me. I just snapped. When I woke up, Arachne was dead and I was all alone. I just started crying. I…I don't know what's wrong with me."_

_ "Nothing's wrong with you. Hey, look at me." He brought his hand to her chin and gently pulled her head up to face him, "I will never leave you. I don't care what I have to do. If you need me, I'm there."_

She had begun to lose it when she was even present with the idea of him dying. He would hate to see what she would do if he died now. He slowly got up. Medusa switched the blade from her left to her right and slapped the boy viciously with her empty hand. As Percy fell to the ground, he realized that the sting wasn't that bad. In fact, it felt more like she had given him power rather than hurt him.

Medusa saw the look in his eyes. She didn't like it. Why was he not angry? What was this look of bewilderment? She ran up to the boy and socked him good in the gut three times with her left hand. He returned the favor with a solid right hook across her face. As she stumbled, she noticed that her "mood" ring was glowing even brighter. _'Why? Is this the reason he's becoming stronger?' _she thought back to the person who had given the ring to her as the realization was slowly hitting her.

The shadowy figure had approached her in Taturus a little over two weeks ago. She knew he was powerful because the very ground around her shook. That day, she had been led by this power to come to a cave. The figure was there waiting for her. He had given her a ring that would assure great power to its master. She had gladly taken it from the figure and then had finally found a way to be reformed back into the surface world a week later.

She had frozen the manager of the Stone Fortress and manipulated the Mist so that he disappeared in the minds of everyone. Actually, she done away with quite a few people. No one had noticed the fact that their "servers" were constantly shimmering and dissipating into mist.

It seemed that luck had shined on her when that blasted _girl_ had shown up with her friend. Medusa had thought it was weird that the great Percy Jackson didn't carry that scent as he had the first time she had discovered him. She had to take a couple looks at the boy in order to confirm that it was Percy Jackson. But where was his scent? Had they known about her whereabouts? Did they know that she was going to kill them? She decided then to drug the girl so that she would be able to pick off the great hero. The sleeping agent would last a few minutes, but that would give her enough time to kill the child.

Now, however, she was beginning to think that this ring of power was nothing more of a curse. She threw the ring behind her and continued her fight with Percy Jackson.

* * *

Annabeth could only guess how badly their date was going when she felt her head pounding. She picked herself off the ground as an object hit her in the head.

_'Great. Now I'm target practice for something. As if my headache wasn't bad enough.'_ She thought as she squinted to look at the object. It seemed to be nothing more than a normal mood ring. But as she picked it up, Annabeth felt something familiar stir inside her. Almost as if she knew the power that was inside of it on a personal level. She heard something in the kitchen and her mind told her to go investigate, but her body wouldn't let her. She sat there and stared at the ring.

_"Destroy me. It's the only way."_ It spoke.

_'And now I'm hearing mood rings talk…maybe I should build a nut house in Camp Half-Blood and ask Mr. D to direct it.'_ She thought.

_"Please,"_ it begged, _"I need to save you. Destroy me. Please."_

The tone it had taken was small and nervous. In fact, it seemed almost pleading. Despite her attempts to never remember the case, she had remembered that tone before. But where? Where had she heard such a broken voice before?

_"I don't want to see you hurt. I just don't want to hurt you."_

Annabeth almost dropped the small object in here hands.

I just don't want to hurt you

Percy had said those words to her just today.

_"Destroy the crystal girl. Allow me to repay the Hero of Olympus for his service. He is the only demigod I know who deserves such a chance again. He was never born to be mortal. In fact, I'm not too sure if he was ever born to be a demigod. Please, the world needs its hero back."_

She wasn't sure whose voice she heard, but her decision was made as she looked into the kitchen and saw her boyfriend struggling to fight against the angered Medusa. Annabeth took the ring and smashed it against the wall. A bright light flashed in the room and Medusa shielded her eyes from it.

The snake woman looked down as she felt something stick out of her abdomen. That dreaded blade, Riptide, had come back to his pocket. Percy had taken out the sword while Medusa was distracted and had impaled her through the heart. The monster took a look a Percy, then moved her gaze to Annabeth, and finally looked at the sword running through her.

She looked to the faucet as she heard the water in the pipe beginning to cause the steel to break. The water hit her with such force that she not only staggered back, but also manged to get the sword pushed even deeper. As she faded into Tarturus, she cursed herself for not realizing who had given her that ring earlier.

_'Curse you, Ladon.'_ She thought. The dragon was not known for ever giving a chance at immortality without a fight with one of equal power, but did it perhaps feel…pity for the boy. Had it somehow collected his power back? No it wasn't possible, unless the dragon had given him some of his power to restore him. No the guardian wouldn't do something as foolish as to weaken himself in order to save this demigod. Would he?

Medusa had little time to think about this as her essence dropped deep into the pit of hell.

* * *

Annabeth looked at the broken ring in her hands, to Riptide, and then finally to Percy. She ran up to him and pressed her lips against his in an adrenaline driven kiss. When the two broke apart, Annabeth just stared into his green eyes. Finally, she could see the extra brilliance that had been taken away when he had been turned into a mortal. Finally, he was back.

"I guess I need to tell Paul that I shouldn't be taken his car out anymore."

"Yeah, but more importantly, someone needs to pack his bags and come to camp."

"But I have summer…"

"And I'm the daughter of Athena. I can help you blow past those courses by the end of next week."

Percy laughed, "Someone missed me."

Before pulling him in for another kiss, she smiled, "You have no idea."


End file.
